| Nicky gets through to Semi Finals |
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Day One, Women's Singles: Cerfontyne could come home Richard Eaton reports Nicola Cerfontyne, the Denmark-based national champion, celebrated her selection for England for the first time with two characteristically high-speed displays while reaching the quarter-finals in defence of her title. Cerfontyne has been included in the European championships squad and although she is not funded by England, her performances today and her forthcoming international opportunity suggested it is not impossible that situation could change. The 24-year-old from Dorset followed a well taken 21-14, 21-8 first round win over Nicki Chan-Lam with a slightly more laboured 21-11, 21-16 success against the former England performance squad member Fontaine Chapman. Cerfontyne remains based in Copenhagen, coaching and competing at three different clubs to keep herself afloat financially in difficult circumstances. The way she tackled her opening match in particular offered hints of this strength of character. Chan-Lam, a final year Maths student at Manchester University, started rather well, displaying fine skills at the net and a willingness to attack, and remained enterprisingly in contention till 10-12. Then Cerfontyne showed that she is supplementing her excellent court coverage with more creative options, eventually getting on top as Chan-Lam began to struggle with a hamstring problem. Cerfontyne knows all about injuries. She trained for several weeks through a foot ailment which she was warned might be a stress fracture, and was very relieved to discover it was merely a cyst. Nevertheless having that treated cost £300 of her hard-earned cash, so if the opportunity were to come to come home and be funded as part of the England set-up it seems likely that she would jump at it. "I was very excited to be selected for the Europeans," she said. "I shall be very happy to be part of the team. To be selected makes you feel that you have something. I have always wanted to play for my country." It all suggested that the second-seeded Cerfontyne will make a robust defence of the title, even thoughLiz Cann, four times the former champion, began with rapid wins over Lynnlette Aung and Dawn Johnson, is a clear favourite. |
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